How To Pick A Good Bottle of Wine

Oenologists are the God-send experts who can test and appreciate the quality of wine. They judge and rank wine assortments, giving us some all-important clues about the best wines there are throughout the world.

Both Europe and the United States have a huge production of wine, coming from very specific regions, and thus with widely varying characteristics. But since most of us here are not trained wine experts, here are some basic tips about how to buy wine for your everyday dinner at home, or weekend get together with your loved one.

First of all, you can’t necessarily judge a bottle of wine by its price. Everyone is in agreement on this one, experts and laymen alike: cheap wine can taste great, while above-average bottles proved to be huge disappointments in many occasions. The trick is, of course, to be able to find the few good cheap wines on the shelves full of, literally this time, sour grapes.

One way to try and spot a good bottle of wine for dinner, one that won’t cost you a small fortune, is to look at the labels. There are two ways to read a label. First, you can go ahead and avoid those labels that shine so bright that could probably start glowing in the dark. It may be not be a very reliable rule, but we took a trial and error approach to this, and finally settled for the less shiny labels.

However, the best way to read a label is to look at the information written on it and get a sense of what to expect from the wine inside. Sweet wines can be overwhelming, especially if you want to have a glass over dinner. At the same time, dry wine is often more of an acquired taste, so you can take a safe bet and go for a semi-dry bottle of white or red wine.

You can also spot your favorite types wine by the region they come from, a valuable piece of information always written on the label. To name but a few, some of the most famous red wines are Cabernet, Merlot and Pinot Noir. All these ideally have strong fruity flavors, with varying degrees of berries sweetness that will tingle your palate like no other types of wine.

The white wines are great during hot summer evenings, and will mesmerize you with their citric and apples flavors. You can always trust a Chardonnay to refresh you with its green apple scent at the end of a hot day. If you’re more into sweet flavors, go for a Riesling; its apricot, peach, and honeysuckle aroma won’t be disappointing you.

At the end of the day, wine experts agreed that for a casual glass at home, the best wine you can go for is whichever you found and liked. Yes, you probably won’t be able to go for the finest wine on the market, but if your taste buds agree to a flavor, than you’ve got yourself a winner.